I personally, would've overridden the equal function of record (or made an equality helper function). so the code would become if(!record.isBuiltIn() || !user

I personally, would've overridden the equal function of record (or made an equality helper function). so the code would become if(!record.isBuiltIn() || !user.canChange(record) || !record.equals(oldRecord)){ // can't save / or no need too } and if no one can change a builtin, then a user certainly can't change it. so it becomes: if( !user.canChange(record || !record.equals(oldRecord))){ // can't save / or no need too }